Welcome to MONEY MASTER. Money Master is a financial management and money talk blog where our aim is to become the money master rather than the slave to the money. Making money is no easy job if you treat it as a burden but once money becomes your friend and work for you, that is when cash flows in. Becoming the money master rather than slave to it helps us redefine the whole idea of earning more - it's more like the money working for us.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

WSJ: U.S. Examines Goldman Sachs [NEWS]

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday that the FBI and Justice Department gather information about bank’s role in transactions at Malaysia fund.

The inquiries are at the information-gathering stage, and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by the bank, the people said. Investigators “have yet to determine if the matter will become a focus of any investigations into the 1MDB scandal,” a spokeswoman for the FBI said.

The widening scandal—investigators in five countries are now looking into 1MDB—highlights the sometimes risky path that Goldman has cut in emerging markets in search of faster growth.

1MDB is now entangled in accusations of billions of dollars of missing money, putting it at the center of a political crisis for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who oversees the fund. Malaysian government investigators earlier this year traced $700 million into Mr. Najib’s alleged bank accounts through agencies, banks and companies linked to 1MDB, The Wall Street Journal reported in July. Malaysia’s anticorruption agency later said the funds came from an unspecified Middle East donor.

The government investigation hasn’t detailed what happened to the funds that went into the prime minister’s alleged personal accounts. Transactions around the fund are under investigation by the FBI and Justice Department, as well as authorities in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Switzerland.

1MDB and Mr. Najib didn’t reply to requests for comment. Mr. Najib has denied any wrongdoing or taking money for personal gain. 1MDB has said money was paid out properly to fulfill the fund’s financial obligations and that it would cooperate with any investigations.